Where does she come up with this stuff?

Today as I was getting ready, Justine said, "Mom, are you trying to look handsome for dad?"

Then her hand clasps across her mouth, "Girls aren't handsome..."

Thinking she was going to say beautiful...

She replies, "I mean are you trying to look hot?"

Seriously, we don't usually refer to each other as hot... where does she come up with this stuff?

Happy Birthday Jaiden

I am...... well..... over a month late in posting about Jaiden's birthday. But it's because I wanted to make it the perfect post about the perfect girl!
Jaiden turned 9 on February 18th.
I am utterly amazed at the young lady she has become.
She was such a difficult baby.... but oh so cute. She would cry everytime we got in the car, and poor little Jack, just a baby himself, at 16 months old, would say, "Baby, shut up... please just shut up."

She was easily overstimulated by new things. She wouldn't get into a swimming pool until she was at least three years old. She would cry on a whim....

She cried at every birthday party she had from age 1 to about 5. Even singing happy birthday to her was too much...

But she had this awesome smile. She could wear bowl cut bangs like no other girl, and she grew into this happy, reassured child.

She finally learned to relax....

And amazingly, she grew into this beautiful, smart, sweet nine year old. She is the little mommy of the house. She takes care of others. She loves like no other. We love her so much and are so lucky to have our mae mae.

P.S. I finally remembered the birthday plate!

Daddy and his girls....

Jameson and Jaiden received 4th and 5th place respectively at the "WILD about gymnastics" meet last weekend. We are so proud of them.

What we've been up to.... a photo expose

One of the many reasons why I haven't been blogging lately....
We constructed a solar system at the park... complete with demonstrations of rotating orbits. I was the sun.

And the rabbit is............

Very much alive.
No... I am not pregnant.
Clearly with my history, that would be the first thing everyone would think.
Thank you all so much for even considering that.
That's kinda like getting carded for alcohol at my age. Such a compliment!

No. The exciting news involved this piece of mail we received on Monday....

which said...............

She got accepted to New York University.
Last year their acceptance rate was 24%... which means she beat out about 27,000 other applicants. So... even if she goes or not, it is a huge accomplishment.

So far, she has gotten the thumbs up from University of Oregon, University of Missouri, and NYU.
Thank God she officially got rejected from UCLA today. ( Hear that? That's mom breathing a sigh of relief.)
We are stalking our mailbox and email daily (and much, much more) to hear news from University of Chicago, her first choice.
We are still waiting for Berkeley, University of Washington, Vassar, and Wesleyan.

I know, I know...

I have been too buried to blog lately. I promise to make up for it.
I have exciting news!

Sacagawea's Secret?

I love history, and I get so excited when my kids take an interest in learning about history. Justine and I were shopping yesterday, and she began to tell me about Lewis and Clark and Sacagawea. She knew they were going from the East to the West. She knew they were going to the ocean. Man, I was impressed. She has been listening! I asked her what Sacagawea had on her back and she said.....

"Um.... a tattoo?"

Ah, the infamous Sacagawean tramp stamp. I'm so proud...

Not Me! Monday

Welcome to Not Me! Monday! This blog carnival was created by MckMama. You can head over to her blog to read what she and everyone else have not been doing this week.

Wow! What a week it's been here at Ellerbeeville. We definitely did not come to some mind blowing decisions around here this week... and no I'm not going to share.

I did not find our new kitten in here...

And I didn't wonder for one moment why our pets always go crazy. I didn't thank the child who did this for not putting "Ninja" in the real microwave. And then I didn't kick myself for even throwing that idea out there.

I did not get to work in the yard in 70+ degree weather this week. I was not completely overwhelmed by the immenseness of what all I need to do this spring to make my backyard liveable again.

I did not look up the work immenseness in my thesaurus to try to find another word that describes the situation better. Hugeness, immensity, prodigiousness, stupendousness, tremendousness, and vastness do not even do it justice.

I did not give in and let the pyros build a fire in the fire pit to burn some old leaves and sticks. The look on his face does not scare me one bit...

I also did not give in and let them make s'mores instead of doing yard work.

We definitely did not go to six (6... count them 6) soccer games in a span of 4 days. We did not celebrate with our son as the SSC 96/97 Reds won the Championship on Sunday. This is not a picture of him kicking it and taking names on Sunday.

Congratulations Josh! and the SSC 96/97 Reds.


We also did not celebrate as 5 of the 6 children signed up for Spring Outdoor Soccer. I did not wonder for even one moment what happens when 3, 4 or 5 kids end up playing at the same time.

I already told you what I did not do to the rabbit eating people in our neighborhood. I won't go into any more detail of our homeowner's association saga as it's not worth the time, but I will say that I did not call them again several times over the last week.

I did not squeal with delight for my daughter who has an opportunity to *maybe* go here for a month this summer to work .

I did not have to look on a map to find out for sure where Santorini Greece is... (OK, I know where Greece is... just not real sure where Santorini is)

I wasn't the least bit jealous of her.

I did not spend way too much time reading this book.

I did not end up in the morgue three times over the weekend. (Yes, that's three times in three days... would you be scared to let me take care of you?) I did not freak out as I typically do in this dark corner of the basement of the hospital when someone started knocking on the door. I wrote a little about my irrational fear here.

I'm sure there's a lot of other stuff that I didn't do this week, but for some reason, I can't stop thinking about the knocking in the morgue, and now I've lost my concentration.